His Duchess at Eventide_A Legend to Love by Wendy LaCapra

Author:Wendy LaCapra [LaCapra, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-04T00:00:00+00:00

~~~

Penelope passed three days at Thaddeus’s side following the incident in the forest. Three excruciating days. Thaddeus had collapsed almost as soon as he reached his room and had only just begun to recover.

She hadn’t even noticed the snake bite until Thaddeus had vomited so much that she and Mrs. Renton had to remove his breeches.

She dipped her cloth into the basin at Thaddeus’s bedside, wrung out the excess water, and carefully wiped her son’s brow. Even if the captain had not encouraged her to keep watch, she couldn’t have left her son’s side.

At least Anthony, Thomas, and their guests had left for a few days at Portsmouth, for the expressed purpose of viewing the infamous hulks where the French prisoners were kept, but Pen suspected they were more likely to indulge in gaming and whores.

What kind of men traveled that far to simply to gawk at those less fortunate?

She returned the cloth to the basin.

Before the fever broke, Thaddeus had been flushed, and cranky, and insisting he must get out of bed.

“Why?” she’d asked.

“To find my father,” he’d replied.

“Your father is dead, love.”

“He’s not,” he’d repeatedly insisted. “He’s out there. He’s in trouble.”

She closed her eyes and exhaled, grateful that trial, at least, had passed.

She stood and stretched her back, eyeing the stitching she’d thrice abandoned.

She hadn’t been thinking clearly when she’d started cutting and sewing. She’d just needed something—anything—to occupy her hands. But now, the coat she’d made for the captain was finished, the shirt nearly so, and she wondered if she should give the captain so intimate a gift.

Why shouldn’t she thank him?

After all, he’d saved Thaddeus’s life. And, the high stakes of the moment forgave his discourtesy in the aftermath, even if he hadn’t apologized.

She drew the shirt into her lap and plied her needle.

After a few failed starts, she’d settled on a design that had seams that, instead of circling the shoulder, ran from under the arm directly to the collar, allowing, as she’d hoped, for a wider range of movement.

She placed the last stitch, tied off the thread, and then shook out the shirt.

Mrs. Renton came into the room. “I’ll take over for a while. You rest.”

“Thank you.” Penelope folded the shirt and picked up the coat. “I believe I’ll take some air.”

Halfway down the stairs, she heard the rattling of carriage wheels and raised, raucous voices.

Her heart sank.

Her reprieve had ended. Anthony and his coterie had returned.

The butler Anthony hired rushed to open Ithwick’s door.

Anthony was first inside. “What? No sign of the intrepid Mrs. Renton?”

“Mrs. Renton’s seeing to the young master,” the butler replied.

“What has the miscreant done now?”

“He’s been ill, sir. Following a nasty encounter with an adder in the forest.”

Anthony cocked his head in a way that made Penelope’s blood run cold.

She read in his expression the truth she’d only just suspected—the man-trap had been intentionally set and purposely concealed, and the target had been her son.

As for the adders—they could have been an accident, or they could have been insurance.

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